Blog FeedFirst Person Movie
The field of entertainment has seen many meldings of its various fields but with a trend towards films/movies. Books often are used as the basis of film plots or are even turning into movies, usually with dubious results. The same is sometimes true of music, such as with The Beetles’ “Yellow Submarine”, although it can move in other directions as well as can be seen with various on-stage musicals. Video games have also been the subject of such transitions with assorted attempts to bring movies into games (the dreaded “interactive movie”, such as Night Trap on the old Sega CD) and movie versions of games. Initially we may have hoped for great versions of the game that we loved to play but following Street Fighter - The Movie I think we all recognised that the concept was Doomed to failure. Let’s face it, which muppet decided to cast Kylie Minogue as Cammy?
Despite the fact that many games-to-movies have died on their ass this hasn’t stopped Hollywood from trying. Aliens vs. Predator was probably the best known game movie (not seen) and they seem to keep cranking out Resident Evil films regardless of whether they were well received or did well at the box office (not seen either). Doom, however, is about to hit the screen in the US and I decided to check out the recently released trailer and it looks like we’re getting a First Person Movie.
OK, let’s get this out of the way first. Given that game itself involved practically no plot worth knowing about and the film is going to star The Rock (an actor unlikely to be appearing in a Shakespeare play anytime soon), I think it’s probably fair to say that we’re unlikely to be watching a compelling story. This, of course, might not matter since action flicks generally don’t really need one as long as they do the action component well enough. However, on this front I’m more than a little dubious of the impending results so I think I’ll be giving the flick a miss in the cinema (although rental is a possibility), particularly since I wasn’t much of a fan of Doom as a video game.
Since I’ve already stated that I’m not much interested in watching the film itself it is perhaps worth wondering why I’m writing about it. I’m not about to start trashing the film since, aside from the general “plot” and the actors, I don’t know a heck of a lot about it. Rather, I was interested in the trailer because it seems to address a problem that has perhaps reduced the appeal of films about games. Specifically, it looks like it’s trying, at times, to look like the game but in “real-life”. If you haven’t already watched the trailer then I recommend that you do so now.
Consider the earlier examples of entertainment mediums crossing. When reading a book the mind naturally conjures up some sort of vision of what the book would look like in real-life. When it comes to a movie adaptation of a book then we often accept/reject the movie version if it does/doesn’t bare a good resemblance to what it is that we had imagined. Personally, I didn’t much like the movie version of Tom Clancey’s Patriot Games since it strayed too far away from what I imagined in the book, both in terms of the characters and the plot. This isn’t to say that the film itself was bad. I think that had I not read the book first then I’d probably have accepted the movie results a bit more readily since the plot itself isn’t bad and I generally like Harrison Ford flicks. However, I had read the book first (unusual) and therefore took a dislike to the film adaptation. I think that this issue may be what stops me from liking films that are based on video games - they don’t look like what I had imagined. For starters, I’m damned sure that I never imagined Kylie as a Street Fighter…
Returning to Doom, the trailer at the start shows what looks like the typical kind of game-to-movie hokey plot. You get to some spiel about the final part of the human genome being finally mapped, all hell breaking lose and then lots of shots of The Rock’s merry band of marines waving big guns around in an Aliens kinda way. At this point I’d pretty much figured that it was going to be like how I thought it would (i.e. a bit shite) and therefore had turned my brain off. Then, however, it started showing off some of the action (usual corny lines, of course) and some of the action was shown from the first person perspective, just like in the game.
This, for me, is when the movie became “officially interesting”. I’m not expecting the film to be good because, as I noted, I didn’t much like the game in the first place, mostly since horror really isn’t my thing (truth be told, I like stuff like Brigitte Jones’ Diary to my eternal shame). However, it does, as far as I am aware, mark something new. In this case this looks like a movie about a game where it may indeed look like how you imagined the game would look if it were real rather than virtual. In this respect the film might actually look like how you imagined that it would and therefore, good plot/acting or not, may appeal.
There is, however, one small caveat with all this and this more a testimony to how good a job id have done with the graphics of Doom 3. Basically, the film, when it’s in its pseudo FPS-mode, doesn’t look that much better than the game itself does. Take for example the follow comparison shots:
OK, so id’s masterpiece isn’t quite movie quality yet (grainy movie shot doesn’t help this comparison, of course) but in all fairness it isn’t that far off. It may, therefore, be fair to suggest that Doom - The Movie has kinda missed the boat given that the script has been knocking around since before Doom 3 was announced and, as such, Doom 3 itself may do a better job of making the movie version of Doom than the movie does. While debate may rage as to whether the increasing costs of making a game is a “good thing” given that the high production values are seemingly capable of resulting in a product that can almost look as good as “the real thing”, perhaps games are beginning to become the movies of tomorrow.
3rd October | Reply
I saw the same Doom preview last night at the Serenity showing. Bridget Jones’ Diary would have been a much better movie had it been shot in the first person mode down the barrel of a gun. The weapon doesn’t even need to discharge at any point in the movie, but it would make the strangely uptight emotional acting that much more convincing.
And you’re right; Indigo Prophecy doesn’t start out with the words “New Game” it says “New Movie;” and the tutorial is set in a sound stage environment. Games are the new theatre.
3rd October | Reply
“If you would like Calculon to race to the rescue and save the day, press 1. If you would like Calculon to recheck his paper work, press 2.”
Games are definitly becoming a cinema of sorts. They have completely replaced TV watching for me. However, there is still something about the theater experience.
As for cinematics though…. check out the FEAR SP and MP demos. FEAR combines elements of the Source Engine with the Doom engine. So all the crazy shadows and lighting, high detail textures, high quality character models and AI. It is just incredible to behold on high settings. If they just recorded someone playing FEAR SP and tossed it on a movie screen, it would be pretty chilling at times.
3rd October | Reply
I saw the same trailer at the Serenity showing too…it was remarkable at how true an adaptation it was from the original DOOM game plot in terms of shallowness
I too was mesmerized by the game-like first-person perspective of some of the shots. First person is a little weird to see in movies. It was kind of boring, but nevertheless interesting to see. And I had the same impression: the movie didn’t look all that much more interesting compared to the game. The Rock is kind of a good choice for casting, since his facial expressions do not push the state-of-the-art much further than current in-game cinematics.
3rd October | Reply
While I forget both the name and channel that its supposed to be appearing on, I understand that one of the UK television channels (and this already have been done in the US or elsewhere) is planning a soap opera of sorts whereby the audience can vote for where the plot goes in the next episode. This seems to be going more in the direction of the old “Interactive Movies” but will effectively be aiming gaming at television audiences rather than television at gaming audiences. I’m not expecting great things from this concept since I’m sure that the plot cannot remain strong throughout potentially 30+ “decision points”. Still, it’s an interesting concept through which I expect people to try and mess up the plot as much as possible, such is human nature…
4th October | Reply
The first Resident Evil-movie was actually pretty good, but I think that is the only game-based movie I’ve seen that wasn’t crap.
4th October | Reply
Unless they pick a very specific game, game based movies have to know not to take themselves completely seriously. Neither of the Resident Evil movies were “terrible”. Mortal Kombat was hilariously entertaining. Resident Evil gets props for killing 90% of the cast in the first 15 minutes too.
4th October | Reply
I just saw the trailer for this one in the theater… I’m morbidly curious.
4th October | Reply
Most of the first person shots they showed looked like “ass”. However, they showed one first person view at the end which was chainsaw vs pinky demon (almost carbon copy of the pinky demon from Doom 3). It looked quite interesting.
Oh and since the trailer is before Serenity showing, Wasn’t Serenity FUCKING AWESOME?! So awesome it was worth naughty words on a comment.
4th October | Reply
Hmm, the review that I read a few days ago seemed to suggest that it was pretty formulaic and not actually that good, although fans of Firefly should like it. I’m a big Buffy/Angel fan but have completely missed out on Firefly so I have a feeling that the film probably won’t mean that much to me.
5th October | Reply
Kelmon: Not so. I hadn’t seen any of Firefly before checking out Serenity, and I was blown away. I thought it was incredibly, incredibly entertaining.
As for the Doom movie: I also saw the trailer at a showing of Serenity, and I think it looks like total bollocks. Several reasons this flick is going to fall on its face:
1. The Rock stars. I confess to liking Walking Tall, but let’s face it: no Oscars for this man.
2. The storyline isn’t terribly compelling, plus it’s been done. Twice. For people who’ve played the game, it’s going to suck worse because there’s nothing new there.
3. I honestly don’t think the first-person shots are going to work in a movie context. Especially when it’s going to jump (from what we see in the trailer) between the first-person shots and the more traditional shots. I think that transition is going to cause problems. And honestly, I think it’s just downright corny.
7th October | Reply
from what i’ve heard the first person shots are all from a single part of the the film that’s somewhere between 5 and 10 minutes of uninterupted first person action. it’s very intriguing that’s for sure, and ‘the rock’ has never been a negative in a film before. he’s playing a big tough military guy. i don’t think i’ll have trouble believing in him as just that.
what does really get on my nerves though is that the gun seems to talk in the first person moments. ‘reload’ etc. that’s just unnescessary.
also, i’m glad that the film isn’t as dark as the game.
10th October | Reply
I saw the trailer and am not particularly impressed.
It looks like it’s going to be like watching someone play a game. That’s not I want to go to the cinema for. If I wanted to watch someone play Doom I could do it elsewhere.
10th October | Reply
Well, here’s an open question and the one that I was initially driving at with my article:
Would a movie based on a game appeal more if it more closely resembles the game that you remember playing?
My initial suggestion was that I find movies of books more appealing if they appear how I imagined the book. Games are obviously different because you already have a visual memory of them but perhaps you already attempted to imagine what the “real thing” would have looked like.
Feel free to sound off…
11th October | Reply
I understand what you mean in the case of movies and books.
Things are indeed different with games though. Personally I would rather have the movie looking different from the game. The Doom movie just looks too much like the game.
A movie based on a game is a good oppurtunity to flesh out the characters and locations of the game world and make an entertaining story. This is the defining factor of a movie. There is no need to worry about gameplay so whoever is making the movie can concentrate on good charectarisation and story, which is to be honest often sadly lacking in games.
As for visual style there should be some tie with the game ptherwise things will just be confusing. But this visual tie shouldn’t be in terms of using lots of CGI (see Final Fantasy) or FPS viewpoints as in Doom. I’d far rather have things look more real and have the world of the game, as I said before fleshed out.